Valentine’s day Gift Guide

Posted on February 12, 2017

“time stands still best in moments that suspiciously look like ordinary life”

Flipping through this book made us smile the entire time. Its a celebration of a life built together. God of small things. All the moments that go by that I would have written off as normal. But seeing it all in print made me realize – we are the people in that book. And we have experienced these moments. Even on the days when we don’t realize it, we are collecting the memories. ” Do you need a book and a day to realize it? “, you can ask. In the everyday hustle, its easy to forget. In chasing the big moments, its easy to forget the simpler ones. Date nights in restaurants filled with trained chefs are awesome. But so is eating a ripe watermelon crouched over the sink. Getting a bouquet of red roses is nice. But so is getting a tiny wild flower on a random Wednesday because he spotted it on the way home and thought of me when he saw it ….. the little things matter.

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Other gift ideas : a potted plant, seeds and an empty pot filled with mud, a couples tango lesson, cooking class, yoga class, rock climbing lesson, an adventure race, a road trip, a hike, woolen socks, a sketch session where you make your partner sit and you sketch her ( and record her reaction when she sees your final product. do this every year and save the sketches ), going together to pick out a nice bottle of wine, disco date on the couch with mandatory DIY costumes and flashing colorful lights, sleeping in a little longer, ordering breakfast in bed, make a reading date with your old fav books, organize a treasure hunt, go for the longest walk ( break your previous record ), go surprise visit your parents, volunteer at a local food bank together, buy the book I recommended-tear out the pages & mail one page each to all the couples you know, ….

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Stopped gifting each other things/experiences a long time ago. We did it during the initial years, yes.

I suppose that it could happen to couples who have been together a long time. But in our case, it is probably also a personality thing. “Gift” feels a tad strange, or deliberate (for lack of a better word). We share a lot, but I cannot term any of it as “gifting.” Also, I cannot get behind the idea of a specific day to celebrate love and companionship.

Happy V-Day to you and Harsha! Hope it is beautiful. 🙂 I like many of the ideas you’ve mentioned. They are so wonderful; I’d go for them any day of the year.

Oh we dont gift each other. He infact hates shopping, things, spending money, …. I wouldnt put him through the task of gift finding for me. He will age at twice the rate if we celebrated birthdays and other ‘days’. I have now fallen into need based shopping. If random things show up for me, it actually stresses me out – ” which thrift store will I have to dump that on? “, is the first though that comes to mind.

But the romance can dwindle / get undervalued after the years. I am always collecting these sort of ideas to add to my arsenal.

For example, I read this in Readers Digest :

“My parents have been married for 50 years. When we were kids, we would hear the phrase ‘I have a dollar to spend. What can we do?’ It sounded like an odd thing to say. Years later, we realized it was a catch phrase of sort. My parents put a dollar in the savings jar everytime they made love. And after 50 years, they used that money to go on a honeymoon. They bought plane tickets and everything. So we know they saved a lot. ”

I have an (doctor) aunt who once told me she has seen too many deaths in her life time. And hence cant fight with her husband for long. She makes it a point to break the sulking/truce during the fight. He could be gone the next day and he is too precious.

…

These sort of gestures and stories, I love collecting. They add to my relationship. I only have a tiny amount of wisdom and creativity. I am always borrowing for others ….

We kiss each time we see each other. We say “I love you” every night before we go to bed. We listen to each other intently. We make requests of each other, rather than complaints. We support the other’s dreams. We laugh a lot. Those are the best gifts we have to offer. I love how simple and beautiful you keep this holiday. ❤

For his 30th, I found 30 presents. Made a long covered “train” of them, and asked him to open them in order, one after the other. That was more fun for me, I think. 🙂

A long time ago, when we were newly dating (such a long time ago that the word “dating” itself seemed too new for us!), he cooked lunch for me on my birthday.

I love many of the ideas but I don’t know if they’d necessarily feel natural to the kind of people we are — know what I mean? Ultimately, you end up doing what feels natural and spontaneous, even if it is the most hackneyed idea or the most novel one.

Lovely ideas for gifts. We always exchange small presents as a couple, and get cards. It’s just a good opportunity to indulge a little. Things like cashmere socks, or penghaligons or a vintage book, cost so little but are wonderful to receive. We never buy roses, which are toxic and overpriced this time of year.

I didn’t want to spoil the party 🙂
We (as the country) didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at all-we even didn’t know what all the fuss was about-I’ve read about it in books,about Valentine’s cards and all ….
We celebrated the 8th of March,as International Women’s Day instead-with just a little bit of romance connected with it.(although the first gift from my boyfriend-husband to be, much later-was perfume for 8th of March) , but this holiday was,for me,more like Mother’s Day
So,Valentines has come only about decade or two ago,with all the glory of love and,even more,consumerism.
So,we(this time not as a country :-)) exchange small gifts,chocolates ,we drink champagne or something like that . As LS said-every excuse for celebrate is a good one
We like to go out for dinners,but never on Valentine’s Day ,and I like to give and receive both small and big presents,but they are simply not connected with the Valentine’s Day
Dottoressa